Not as many people are flooding into Ark Encounter as projected

Visitors to the life-sized Noah’s Ark attraction near Northern Kentucky are sinking below the number of projected visitors advertised by the owners of the religious-themed park.

The Ark Encounter sold a little more than 860,000 tickets between July 2017 and June 2018, according to open records obtained by The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the separation of church and state.

When the park opened in 2016, park officials anticipated 1.4 million to 2.4 million yearly visitors.

A spokesman for the park said the foundation’s figures for ticket sales are accurate but noted that it doesn’t represent how many people actually visited the park.

Ark Encounter spokesman Mark Looy estimated that 1 million guests came to the Ark Encounter last year, and on busy days, between 7,000 and 8,000 people visit the park. He said attendance has been growing since the park opened two years ago.